Vermont Trip Days 1 and 2

Our trip to Vermont to celebrate our first wedding anniversary (and to have one last vacation before the baby was born) started bright and early on October 15. Ilya’s dad drove us from our house into New York City where we would be catching a Megabus to the University of Vermont campus center in Burlington, VT. While waiting in line for the bus I found myself surprised to notice that there were tons of tiny apples on the tree above me.

The Megabus experience was pretty positive. We were probably the oldest people on the bus, with everyone else being college-aged and returning to school after visiting somewhere in the NYC area over the weekend. It was very quiet, and most passengers were either sleeping or studying. Beary Brunswick obeys safety regulations on the bus:


Beary stands up and stretches his legs on the one stop on the ~6 hour drive at a racetrack in upstate NY to pick up/drop off passengers.


There wasn’t much in the way of grabbing a snack or using the restroom at this stop, but luckily we had brought sandwiches with us. There was a bathroom on the bus which was your standard issue bus potty. Once we got off the bus in Burlington, we got a cab to our rental car. We then drove about 45 minutes to Stowe, VT, which is where our hotel was located.


It was a very nice, clean hotel with helpful staff and in a great location. We had no complaints. That first night we got dinner at a Mexican restaurant right down the road from the hotel. It was OK but nothing special in terms of Mexican food, but we were hungry and tired and it was pretty late. You should probably be suspicious of any Mexican restaurant that has a Dijon vinaigrette as its house dressing. Ilya did order me a virgin margarita which was cute.
        Our first morning in Stowe, we got breakfast at the little café attached to our hotel, and everything was very homey and delicious and it all felt very Vermonty. From there we set off to our first of many stops that day, the Cold Hollow Cider Mill.


There was a big gift shop with lots of samplin’s and tons of jars of different stuff which I always have fun looking at.


Ilya warms his hands by the fire.


We got to watch the cider making in action, while enjoying a cold sample right off the press. First they grind the apples into a mush which gets hosed in onto layers of cloth separated by plastic and stacked on top of one another.


Then the press comes down and squeezes all the juice out of the apple mush.


You can’t read the little blurb in this picture, but I thought it was funny. It’s explaining that the leftover mush after the pressing is fed to nearby pigs, which in turn makes their bacon have an apple flavor.


Before leaving we got a few chunks of fudge to go, hot cider, and fresh cider donuts. We goofed off in their little seating area, and Ilya attempted to teach me to play checkers. Note: checkers is dumb, which is probably the reason no one ever bothered to teach it to me before.




I snapped this shot on our way to our next location, the Ben and Jerry’s factory.



At the factory we watched a video about the history of the company, and got to take a tour and see the behind the scenes action. There were generous samples at the end. Like, a whole scoop. No tiny spoonfuls here. We also strolled over to the “flavor graveyard” where each failed flavor has a tombstone and a funny poem describing its demise. A lot of them sounded really good!







        From here we spent the rest of the afternoon meandering around the Stowe area by car. Ilya decided to take a turn down a random side road, which ended up being a really scenic residential area. We encountered cows!




And scenery galore!
















It actually was flurrying most of the time we were wandering around in this area. Here’s proof.


We eventually found the road we were on dumping directly onto someone’s driveway, where there were men working, and it was awkward. We turned around and drove back down the mountain and then wandered into another scenic area, this time with a bunch of ski lodges. It was obviously not ski season so it was pretty deserted. We thought this ski lodge was picture-worthy.


After some more scenic wanderings….




We started to head back in the direction of our hotel to relax and do some internet research on where we’d like to go for dinner. On the way back, we ended up turning into the Trapp Family Lodge’s driveway and once again doing some wandering around their grounds by car.





We had fun propping my camera up on the hood of the car and using the timer to get this shot, which took a few tries.


Upon returning to our hotel room, Beary and Lionel greeted us from where the maid left them (we always plant them in our bed and see what the maids decide to do with them on trips).


After doing some research, Ilya decided we should check out Tanglewoods restaurant, which was about a 20 minute drive from our hotel. It was really well reviewed online.


I took this picture right after we pulled in, and the sun was doing something cool on the mountains nearby as it set.


Once inside, the place was pretty empty so we were given the best seat in the house- right next to the cozy fireplace. It was really nice!


Within the next half hour or so, the place really filled up. We shared a bowl of split pea soup as an appetizer, and then I got the buttermilk fried chicken which was raved about all over the online reviews. It was really, really good.


Ilya got pork chops with mashed sweet potatoes and roasted veggies which he really enjoyed.



We opted not to get dessert in this restaurant, even though the options sounded really good. Instead we wanted to try to go to one of the cute little ice cream shops we had seen in a downtown area nearby. This is where we learned our lesson that Stowe (at least in the off-season) is not like NJ, and everything closes at sundown. The downtown area was completely dead, everything was closed and it was not even 8 o’clock. We did some more driving around in utter disbelief that there was not a treat to be found, and eventually gave up and went back to our hotel. We soothed ourselves with hot beverages from the hotel lobby and some of the fudge we had bought at the cider mill that morning, and settled in for an evening of presidential debate watching/sleeping. I’ll leave it up to you to figure out who did which of those things.

Baby's Room Tour

I think it is now safe to say we’ve accomplished everything on that long list of must-do’s before our baby arrives. We’ve taken all the classes, gotten all the stuff, picked a pediatrician, etc. We’ve even done the majority of the unnecessary things like, clean our house from top to bottom, freeze a bunch of pre-made food, and get the nursery all frilly and fit for a princess! All that’s left to do is sit and wait. Decorating the nursery was a fun process for me, so in the meantime I wanted to share the finished product. I’ll start with the hallway outside the room. My friend Alex made a very cute and very appropriate “Sam-I-Am” banner for my Seuss themed baby shower. I wanted to save it for the house since the baby’s name is Samantha, but I didn’t really have a spot for it inside the room, so I put it outside. I think it looks really cute and festive for welcoming home baby Samantha.

Next is the view as you walk into the room (which is the door on the right in the above picture). You can see a hint of the changing table on the left, and the crib on the right. Directly to the right of the door is the nice big closet.


Anyone who has gotten a tour of my house before this fall knows that this room (formerly the guest bedroom) was a shade of powder blue that I really hated. Despite my hatred, I was never moved to pick a different color and do something about it until now. This color is a pale grey called “Silver Drop” from Behr. My mom did a great job painting the room, and covering all that blue over Thanksgiving weekend. I love how it turned out! I also decided pretty early on in the process that I am not a huge fan of the matching nursery decor sets that the baby stores sell. They’re pretty expensive, and I didn’t love any of them enough to feel it was worth the price, and hoped to just go out and buy whatever I liked to decorate the room instead of sticking to a set. I knew I wanted lots of big, cheery, bright pops of color, so I got things that fit into that theme, and I really am happy with the final outcome. I think all the colors pop really nicely off of the subtle wall color, too. Here is a close-up of the little accent rug you can see in front of the crib in the previous picture.


And here is a closer-up shot of the stuff going on between the windows:


And a glare-free close-up of this framed picture. It’s from our maternity shoot that was a gift from Alex (who also made the Seuss banner!) who is starting up her own photography business. You can check her out on facebook (and see some more of the pics she took of us!) here.


Here is a direct shot of the changing table/dresser. The furniture is pretty big and the room is relatively small, so it was a little hard to take pictures of it without cutting it off. In the corner in the right there will eventually be a glider, which has not yet arrived. The blanket and pillow on the floor there are waiting to adorn it once it does. Note the cheerful sock monkey greeting Samantha all the way from Uncle Dom and Aunt Kelly in WV.



Here is a close-up of the decorations on the hutch. The little ornament hanging on the knob is another Sam-I-Am trinket that was given to us by Gretchen. You surely can’t be surprised that a framed picture of Jackie-cat made it into a prime spot, can you?



Above the closet is a banner that I made with my Cricut, which is a really cool paper cutting tool.


Above the door are some cute flower decals that I got from Target. They are completely removable and able to be easily repositioned a bunch of times, which is great.



And finally, the crib. I should mention that this crib converts to a toddler bed and then to a full sized bed, so this is the same bed she will be sleeping in when she visits us from college in 20 years! The dresser/hutch and changing table will stay as part of the set, too.


I love that the flowers look like they are growing out of the crib, and the sunshine in the picture looks like it is shining on them. Here is a closeup of the picture above the crib, which was one of the first things I bought for the room and sort of tried to pick things that would coordinate with it during this process.



Now all we need is our little squishy bundle of joy, who will hopefully decide to make her entrance in the next week! We can’t wait!